By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rebutted claims by the office of the Attorney General that the third accused in the ongoing ambulance trial, Mr. Richard Jakpa, requested plea bargain meetings with the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame.
Richard Jakpa stated in open court that the Ghana’s Attorney General Mr Dame approached him multiple times, seeking his assistance to implicate the first accused person, Dr Ato Forson.
Dr. Forson, a former Deputy Finance Minister and current Minority Leader in Ghana’s Parliament has been dragged to court by the state for his alleged role in the procurement of faulty ambulances for Ghana.
While debunking the claims by the third accused, the Attorney-General insisted that Richard Jakpa had, instead, sent several letters requesting a plea bargain in a bid for the state to drop all charges against the accused persons but his plea was rejected.
Addressing journalists in Accra on Tuesday, May 28, 2024 the National Chairman of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, stated that Mr. Jakpa never requested a plea bargain.
“Ladies and gentlemen, following Mr Jakpa’s explosive testimony in court, the Attorney-General has falsely claimed through his spokesperson and various assigns that his engagement with the 3rd Accused was for purposes of plea bargain negotiations at the instance of the 3rd Accused.
We want to state for the records that there have not been any plea bargain meetings between the Attorney-General and the 3rd Accused throughout this trial.” Portions of his statement read.
Mr. Nketiah further explained that all the letters being circulated by the Attorney-General in the media were proposals for amicable settlement and plea bargaining from Big Sea LLC and Mr. Jakpa.
“All the letters being circulated by the Attorney-General in the media dated 27th April 2023, 16th May 2023, 30th May 2023 and 12th June 2023, were proposals for amicable settlement and plea bargaining from Big Sea LLC and Mr. Jakpa.
All these proposals were rejected by the Attorney-General, whereupon the trial court decided to continue with the hearing and adjudication of the case.
Since then, the court has not been informed of the commencement of any plea bargain negotiations as required by section 162C(3) of the Plea Bargaining Act, 2022 (Act 1079).
For emphasis, aside from the letters submitted by Mr Jakpa to the Attorney-General for settlement or plea bargaining, which proposals were all rejected by the Attorney General, there has not been any meeting between either Mr Jakpa or his lawyers on one hand and the Attorney-General or his assigns on the other hand.”
The NDC National Chairman continued further saying the communication and meetings between the Attorney-General and the third accused date back to as far as February 16, 2022, and July 17, 2022, when no settlement or plea bargain proposal had even been made by Big Sea and Mr. Jakpa.
“It is worthy to note that all those letters were signed by lawyers for Mr. Jakpa. This means that assuming the Attorney-General had accepted to engage the 3rd Accused in plea bargain negotiations, same should have been done with the lawyers of the 3rd Accused as required by section 162A(3) of Plea Bargaining Act, 2022 (Act 1079).
“More importantly, the evidence of clandestine communication and meetings between the Attorney-General and the 3rd Accused which we have shown you, dates back to as far back as 16th February 2022 and 17th July 2022 when no settlement or plea bargain proposal had even been made by Big Sea and Mr. Jakpa,” He noted.